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‘Offsetting’, ‘co-location’ and other Hong Kong buzz words in the news this week
What the government, and other politicians, really mean when they use jargon you’d never hear anywhere else
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Co-location
What does it mean? “Co-location”, in this case, means putting customs, immigration and quarantine checks for both the Hong Kong and mainland Chinese authorities inside the new terminal for the high-speed rail link to Guangzhou, which is set to start running in the second half of 2018. The key upshot is that mainland officials would end up enforcing mainland laws in Hong Kong, which some say would contravene the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law.
Why was it in the news this week? On Tuesday the local government’s advisory body, the Executive Council, approved the government’s plan to lease to mainland authorities a quarter of the West Kowloon terminus. Opposition legislators vowed to go all out to stop that happening, but ministers denied there was a strong legal case against the plan.
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Offsetting
What does it mean? The controversial Mandatory Provident Fund offsetting mechanism allows employers to dip into employees’ pensions to cover long-service and severance payments. Last year, HK$3.85 billion was offset by employers – up 70 per cent from HK$2.27 billion in 2012. Before leaving office in June, former chief executive Leung Chun-ying said the government would scrap the mechanism.
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